Implantable medical devices are used in patients in order to diagnose root causes for various symptomatic events. For example, implantable loop recorders (ILRs) are used in patients with syncope, or fainting. Traditionally, these implantable devices are used in conjunction with an activator, which the patient or family can use to command the implanted device to store a rhythm in the ILR's memory at the moment of a symptomatic event. However, activators are relatively large devices, which the patient must carry at all times.
Some implantable medical devices include automatic recording of sensed physiological data upon some triggering mechanism, which may be based upon a sensed physiological condition of the patient. However, these automatic recording devices may produce many strips in addition to the strips associated with a symptomatic event, thus making the analysis of the recorded rhythms onerous and inefficient.